Gremlins stay alive
KARNS CITY — The field may have been tilted in Bedford's favor in the first half, but it didn't produce a goal.
Karns City's second half did.
Senior midfielder Dakota King got to a rebound and booted it past Bisons' goalkeeper Chris Klinger in the 75th minute for the game's only score in a 1-0 victory in Tuesday night's PIAA Class 2A boys soccer first-round playoff at Diehl Stadium.
Owen Collwell put the initial shot on net from the left side. Klinger made a diving save on that attempt, but the ball bounced out to King, who let his shot go from 15 yards.
The Bisons (16-1) entered the game undefeated and had surrendered just four goals all season.
King's tally was his 23rd this year.
“I was running straight toward the net, was right around the (penalty kick) spot and played the ball in the right side of the net,” said King. “Scoring a goal that helps us move on in the state playoffs, it means a lot.”The Gremlins (13-1-1) will take on WPIAL champion Deer Lakes in Saturday's quarterfinal round at a site and time to be determined.“I figured this was going to be a one-goal game,” said Bedford coach Barrett Schrock. “It was just a matter of which team was going to get that break. Karns City is a good team, physical, and it was their time.”Bedford had a couple of late opportunities, one coming in the 79th minute. Chase DeLong took a free kick from 40 yards. A KC player headed the ball before Nate Kovach got a shot off from 20 yards to the left of KC goalkeeper Mallick Metcalfe, but it was wide right of the net.“Other than the two games we played Slippery Rock this season, we've allowed three goals,” said Gremlins' coach Jim Grenninger. “Our defense has played really well.”Bedford (16-1) had allowed just 25 shots on goal this season entering Tuesday's contest and the Gremlins struggled to mount a serious threat in the first 40 minutes.Klinger came off his line several times to possess the ball wide of the net, but his first official save didn't come until 15 seconds before halftime when the Gremlins played a ball toward him and King made a rush in an attempt to get a shot off.KC'S opportunities became much more frequent in the second half.King's shot from within 15 yards in the 44th minute was saved by a diving Klinger and it resulted in the Gremlins' first corner kick of the night.King also had an unobstructed shot from 20 yards in the 52nd minute, but it sailed over the net.Three minutes later, Collwell barely missed a goal when his shot from the left side bounced just wide right.“We saw a couple of films on them and could see that they are a tall team,” said Grenninger of the Bisons. “They don't like to play the ball much in the middle of the field and move it to the outside a lot.“In the first half, we put a lot of high pressure on them because they like to drop it back, but in the second half we stopped that because we needed some rest ... decided to bring (defender) Chase Beighley up to create some push that way. I give a lot of credit to Brittni (Grenninger, assistant coach). She suggested that and it worked.”Metcalfe earned the victory in net by making six saves. Klinger ended the game with five saves.
